Mercer Island Dad Finds Son in Japan with Help from Google Missing Persons App

After Friday’s d, thousands are missing and people across the world are desperate for news of loved ones.

For Mercer Island residents, one of those missing was Aaron Strumwasser, a 27-year-old english teacher at a the Starry Kadoba English School in the Taihaku ward of Sendai, Japan.

His father, Dr. Todd Strumwasser, was told about a new tool launched by Google to help find people missing in the Japan earthquake and tsunami and immediately posted a profile of his son.

Around 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dr. Strumwasser — a Chief of Staff at Swedish Medical Center — received a Facebook message from his girlfriend confirming he was alive and his whereabouts.

"My evening just got a whole lot better," he said. "Several people have also put messages up on the People Finder page."

The messages express a perceptible sense of relief. One, from "Mark Cullen", reads, "AARON IS SAFE!!!! He is at a shelter in an elementary school And his girlfriend is safe too!!"

Another, by Naoya Fujiwara and translated — albeit roughly — by the Japan Person Finder from Japanese reads: "Translated Message: He is safe. Has also relieved to know that his parents."

Google started the Person Finder Tool: 2011 Japan Earthquake page, a free information service for those posting information about people or looking for someone, a few hours after the earthquake struck on Thursday. The tool is available in multiple languages. Google uses data from the social networking sites and across the Internet to find records on missing people – they are currently tracking 82,000 records as of Sat., March 12.

According to CNN, almost 80 percent of the Japanese population is online, and people are scouring social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to find information from friends and family.

Visit the Person Finder Tool: 2011 Japan Earthquake page to use the Google service.

Mercer Island Patch of local residents Ashley Harris and Tyler Besecker.